henry alford - the state of the blessed dead

8/13/2019 Henry Alford - The State of the Blessed Dead

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hapter 1

AVE already announced that during this Advent season I would call your attention to the state of thssed dead. My object in so doing is simply that we may recall to ourselves that which Scripture hasealed respecting them, for our edification, and for our personal comfort. And I would guard that whi be said by one or two preliminary observations.

h Death as an object of terror, with Death from the mere moralist's point of view, as the termination man schemes and hopes, we Christians have nothing to do. We are believers in and servants of Oo has in these senses abolished Death. Our schemes and hopes are not terminated by Death, but

ch onward into a state beyond it.

ain, with that state beyond, except as one of blessedness purchased for us by the Son of God, I ampresent dealing. It is of those that die in the Lord alone that I speak.

d this being so, it is clear that the first point about them demanding our attention is, the verymmencement of their state at the moment of death. And this will form our subject to-day.

e shall be guided in its consideration by two texts of Holy Scripture. The one is that where Our Lordswers the prayer of the dying thief that He would remember him when He came into His kingdom, Li. 43: "VERILY I SAY UNTO THEE, TO-DAY SHALT THOU BE WITH ME IN PARADISE."

d the other is an expression of St. Paul, Phil. i. 23, not improbably taken from those very wordsorded in the gospel of that evangelist who was his companion in travel--"TO DEPART AND TO BETH CHRIST."

w in both these one fact is simply declared, viz.: that the departed spirit of the faithful man is WITHRIST. It is as if one bright light were lifted for us in the midst of a realm brooded over by impenetrab

st. For who knows whither the departed spirit has betaken itself when it has left us here? One of thest painful pangs in bereavement by death is the utter and absolute severance, without a spark of

elligence of the departed. One hour, life is blest by their presence; the next, it is entirely and for evene from us, never to be heard of more. One word, one utterance--how precious in that moment ofguish do we feel that it would be! But we are certain it never wil l be granted us. None has ever comck who has told the story. Where the spirit wakes and finds itself,--this none has ever declared to usr shall we know until our own turn comes. Now in such a state of uncertainty, these texts speak for utain truth: The departed spirit is WITH CHRIST.

hall regard this revelation negatively and positively: as to what it disproves, and as to what it implies

st, then, it disproves the idea of the spirit passing at death into a state of unconsciousness, from wh to wake only at the great day of the resurrection. If it is to be with Christ, this cannot be. Christ is in

ch state of unconsciousness; He has entered into His rest, and is waiting till al l things shall be put

der His feet; and it would be a mere delusion to say of the blessed dead, that they shall be with Chrhey were to be virtually annihilated during this time that Christ is waiting for His kingdom. Besides, n would the Lord's promise to the thief be fulfilled? What consolation would it have been to him, whswer to his prayer, to be remembered when Jesus came in His kingdom, if these words implied thaould be unconsciously sleeping while the Lord was enjoying his triumph? Therefore we may safelyy, that the so-called "sleep of the soul," from the act of death till the resurrection, has no foundation t which is revealed to us.

s perfectly true, that the state of the departed is described to us as "sleeping in Jesus," or rather, for rds are a misrendering, a having fallen asleep through, or by means of Jesus. But our texts are enoshow us, that we must not take such an expression for more than it really implies. Sleeping, or fallin

eep, was a name current among Jews and Christians, and even among the best of the heathens, fo


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ath, implying its peace and rest, implying also that it should be followed by a waking: but apparentlyh no intent to convey any idea of unconsciousness. It is a term used with reference to us, as well asdead. To us, they are as if they were asleep: removed from us in consciousness, as in presence. T

a also of taking resttended to make this term appropriate. But it must not be used to prove that toch it evidently had no reference.

e spirit, then, of the departed does not pass into unconsciousness. What more do we know of it? It iTH JESUS.

e have now to consider what this implies. And in doing so we shall have further to make certain that

ch we think we have already proved. For first, it clearly implies more than a mere expression of safeping, or reserve for a future state of blessedness. "The righteous souls are in the hand of God, andre shall no harm happen to them." This is one thing: but to be with Christ is another. We might agaipeal to the spirit of the promise made to the penitent thief, in order to show this: we might remind yot in the other text, St. Paul is comparing the two states--life in the midst of his children in the faith, aath; and he says, "I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better:" better than beh you, my Philippians.

that more must be meant than mere safe keeping in the Redeemer's hands. We may surely say, thhing less than conscious existence in the presence of Christ can be intended. And if that is intenden very much more is intended also, than those words at first seem to imply. Remember the contras

ch this same Apostle elsewhere draws. "We know," he says, "that while we are present in the bodare absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by appearance: we are willing rather to be absen

m the body and present with the Lord." That is, if we follow out the thought, this present state ofell ing in our home the body is a state of severance from the Lord; but there is a better state, into whshall be introduced when this house of the body is pulled down: and from the context in that place y add, much as we wish to be clothed upon with our new and glorious body which is from heaven,

en short of that, we have learned to prefer being simply unclothed from the body, because thus weall be present with the Lord.

that we may safely assume thus much, my brethren: that the moment a Christian's spirit is releasedm the body, it does enter into the presence of our Blessed Lord and Saviour, in a way of which it kn

hing here: a way which, compared to all that its previous faith could know of Him, is like presence onds compared to absence.

w let us take another remarkable passage of Holy Writ bearing on this same matter. St. John, in hist Epistle says, "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it never yet was manifested what we shabut if it should be manifested, we know that we shall be like Him: for we shall see Him as He is:" fo

s is the more accurate rendering of the words: meaning, if any one could come back, or come downand tell us what our future state is to be, the information could amount for us now only to this, that w

all be like Him, like Christ; because we shall see Him as He is. And in treating these words atnsiderable length last year, I pressed it on you that this concluding sentence might bear two meaninher, we shall be like Him, because in order to see Him as He is, weMUST be like Him;or, we shalle Him, because the sight of Him as He is will change us into His perfect likeness. For, our presentrpose, or indeed for any purpose, it matters little which of these meanings we take. At any rate, weve gained this knowledge from St. John's words, that the sight of the Blessed Lord which will beoyed by the Christian's spirit on its release from the body, will be accompanied by being also perfe

e Him.

w, here, my brethren, are the elements of an immediate change, blessed and joyous beyond ournception. Let us spend the rest of our time to-day in dwelling upon it.

d I will not now insist on the deliverance of the spirit from the infirmity, or pain, or decay of the body

cause this is not so in all cases. Many a Christian's spirit is set free from a body in perfect vigour analth. Let us take nothing but what is common to all who believe in and serve the Lord. Now what is


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sent state with reference to Him whom all Christians love? It is, absence. And it is absencegravated in a way that earthly absence never is. For not only have we never seen Him, which is a crfectly imaginable in earthly relations, but also, which hardly is, we have no absolute proof of Hisstence, nor of His mind towards us. Even as far as this, is matter of faith and not of appearance. Weve no token, no communication, from Him. I suppose there hardly ever was a Christian yet, living unpresent dispensation, entirely dependent upon his faith, who has not at some time or other had theadful thought cross his mind--overborne by his faith, but still not wholly extinguished, "What if it shobe true after all?" And much and successfully as we may contend with these misgivings of unbeliethat frame of mind which is represented by them, that wavering, fitful, unsteady faith, ever

companies us. The distress arising from it is known to every one who has the Christian life in him. O

se never doubt who have never believed: for doubt is of the very essence of belief. But some pooruls are utterly cast down by the fact of its existence--shrink from these half-doubting fits as ofmselves deadly sin, and are in continual terror about their soul's safety on this account: others, of

onger minds, regard them truly as inevitable accompaniments of present human weakness, but ofurse struggle with them, and evermore yearn to be rid of them.

w if what we have been saying be true,--and I have endeavoured not to go beyond the soberesterences from the plain language of Scripture,--if so much be true, then the moment of departure from

body puts an end for ever to this imperfect, struggling, fitful state of faith and doubt. The spirit that ia moment gone, that has left that well-known, familiar tabernacle of the body a sudden wreck of

nimate matter, that spirit is with the Lord. All doubt, all misgiving, is at an end. Every wave raised b

s world's storms, this world's currents of interest, this world's rocks and shallows, is suddenly laid, are is a great calm. Certainty, for doubt--the sight of the Lord, for the conflict of assurance and

sgiving--the face of Christ, for the mere faith in Christ--these have succeeded, because the departedrit is "with the Lord"--companying with Him.

fore we follow this out farther, let us carefully draw one great distinction. We must not make the toommon mistake of confusing this sight of the Lord which immediately follows on the act of death, witht complete state of the glorified Christian man, of which we shall have to speak in a subsequentmon. Though greater than our thoughts can now conceive, the bliss of which we are speaking to-dncomplete. The spirit which has been set free from the body is alone, and without a body. This is nocomplete state of man. It is a state to us full of mystery--inconceivable in detail, though easily

prehended as a whole. We must take care, in what we have further to say, that this is fully borne innd. And, bearing it in mind, let us proceed.

s sight of Christ, this calm of full unbroken assurance of His nearness and presence, what does itther imply? As far as we can at present see, certainly as much as this. First, the entire absence of em the spirit. It would be impossible to be with Christ in any such sense, unless there were entirereement in will and desire with Him. It would be impossible thus to see Him as He is, without beingm.

us imagine, if we can, the effect of the total extinction of evil in any one of our minds. How many

ergies, now tied and bound with the chain of sin, would spring upward into action! How manyprisoned yearnings would burst their bonds, and carry us onward to higher degrees of good! And alse energies, all these yearnings, can exist in the disembodied spirit. It is in a waiting, a hoping statgreater the upward yearnings, the greater the accumulated energies for God and His work, the hig be the measure of glory to be attained after the redemption of the body, and the completion of theire man.

ell--as another consequence, following close on the last, all conflict, from that same moment, is at ad. Conflict is ordained for us, is good for us, now. If it were to cease here below, we should fall backe have not entered into rest, it would not be good for us to enter into rest, in our present state. Here, e platform, so to speak, of our personality, is drawn two ways, downward and upward: and it is for u

o stand thereon, to keep watch and ward that the downward prevail not; but from that moment, the dks of the downward chain will have been for ever severed, and the golden cord that is let down from


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Throne will bear us upward and onward, unopposed. So that as to conflict, there will be perfect res

d let us remember another matter. If the departed spirit were during this time dwelling on its ownworthiness, casting back looks of self-reproach, weighing accurately God's mercies and its ownuitals during life past, there would of necessity be conflict: there would be bitter self-loathing, thereuld be pangs of repentance. It would seem, then, that during the incomplete and disembodied states is not so; but that all of this kind is reserved for a day when account is to be given in the body ofngs done in the body: and we shall see, when we come to treat of that day specially, how its accoun be, for the blessed dead, itself made a blessing.

ain, as all evil will be at an end, and all conflict,--so will all labour, "Blessed are the dead which dieLord: even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours." Now labour here is a blessing, it is trit is also a weariness. It leads ever on to a greater blessing, the blessing of rest. Christ has entered

o His rest; and the departed spirit shall be with Christ: faring as He fares, and a partaker of Hisndition. Any who have lived the ordinary term of human life in God's service (for it is only of such thaare now speaking) can testify how sweet it is to anticipate a cessation of the toil and the harassing to be looking on to keep the great Sabbath of the rest reserved for the people of God. What more mreserved for us in the glorious perfect state which shall follow the resurrection, is another

nsideration altogether: but it clearly appears that the intermediate disembodied state is one of rest.

d let none cavil at the thought, that thus Adam may have rested his thousands of years, and the las

en of Adam's children only a few moments. Time is only a relative term, even to us. A dream of yeag may pass during the sound that awakens a man; and a sleep of hours appears but a second. Whwe know of time, except as calculated by earthly objects? Day and night, the recurrence of meals,-se constitute time to us: shut up a man in darkness, and administer his food at irregular intervals, aloses all count of time whatever. Surely, then, no cavil on this score can be admitted. In that presenere the departed spirits are, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

us conclude with a consideration, to a Christian the most glorious of all. The spirit that is with Chrisarest presence and consciousness, knows Him as none know Him here. Here, we speak of His pur

righteousness, His love, His triumph and glory, with miserably imperfect thoughts, and in words stre imperfect than our thoughts. We are obliged to employ earthly images to set forth heavenly thing

e revelations of Scripture itself are made through a medium of man's invention, and are bounded byr limited vocabulary. But then it will be so no longer. The Apostle compares our seeing hereto that e who beholds the face of his friend in a mirror of metal, sure to be tarnished and distorting: and ouron thereto beholding the same face to face,--the living features, the lips that move, the eyes that

sten. That spirit which has but now passed away, knows the love that passes our knowledge;ntemplates things which God has prepared for them that love Him, such as eye has never seen, nor heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.

erefore, beloved, let us be of good cheer concerning them that have fallen asleep through Jesus: aus be of good cheer respecting ourselves. Good as it is to obey and serve God here, it has been fa

ter for them to depart and to be with Christ; and it wil l be far better for us, if we hold fast our faith anr confidence in Him firm unto the end. If to us to live is Christ, then to us to die will be gain.


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hapter 2

E stand to-day at this point in our consideration of the state of the blessed dead. They depart, and ah Christ. "This day," the day of the departure, they are consciously, blissfully, in His presence. Theih is turned into sight: their misgivings are changed for certainty: their mourning for joy. Yet, we saidir state is necessarily imperfect. The complete condition of man is body, soul, and spirit. The formese three, at all events, is wanting to the spirits and souls of the righteous. They are in a waiting, tho

an inconceivably blissful state. Of the precise nature of that state,--of its employments, if employmenas, we know nothing. All would be speculation, if we were to speak of these matters.

r concern to-day is with the termination of that their incomplete condition. When shall it come to and? We have this very definitely answered for us by St. Paul, in a chapter of which we shall have musay, and in a verse of that chapter which we will take for our text, 1 Cor. xv. 23. Notice, he is speakinhe resurrection of the dead: and he says, "BUT EVERY ONE IN HIS OWN ORDER: CHRIST THE

RST-FRUITS: AFTERWARD THEY THAT ARE CHRIST'S AT HIS COMING."

ell then: from these words it is clear that the end of the expectant state of the blessed dead, and thenion of their spirits with their risen bodies, will take place AT THE COMING OF CHRIST. Here at oare met by a necessity to clear and explain that which these words import. In these days, it is by noans superfluous to say that we Christians do look forward to a real personal coming of our Lord Jes

rist upon this our earth. I sometimes wonder whether ordinary Christian men and women ever figurmselves what this means. I suppose we hardly do, because we fancy it is so far off from ourselves r times, that we do not feel ourselves called upon to make it a subject of our practical thoughts. To tmight say, first, that we are by no means sure of this; and then, that even if it were true, the interestt time of His coming for every one of us is hardly lessened by its not being near us, seeing that if we, it will be, whenever it comes, the day of our resurrection from the dead. It is evidently the duty of

ery Christian man to make it part of his ordinary thoughts and anticipations--that return of the Lordsus from heaven, even as He was seen to go up into heaven. Now, our object to-day is to ascertainw much we know from Scripture, without indulging in speculations of our own, about this coming, as resurrection which shall accompany it. The latter of these two we made the subject of a sermon ay few Sundays ago; but it was not so much with our present view, as to lay down the hope of the

urrection as an element among the foundations of the Christian life.

w one of the first and most important revelations respecting this matter is found in the fourth chaptehess., ver. 13-18. These Thessalonians had been, as we learn from the two epistles to them, stran

cited about the coming of the Lord's kingdom. Perhaps the Apostle's preaching among them had tapecially this form; for he was accused before the magistrates of saying that there was besides orperior to Caesar another king, one Jesus. And in this excitement of the Thessalonians, fancying asy did that the Lord's kingdom would come in their own time, they thought that their friends who thro

sus had died a happy death were losers by not having lived to witness the Lord's coming. Indeed, throwed for them as those that had no hope: by which expression it seems likely that they even

pposed them to be altogether cut off from the benefits and blessedness of that coming by not having

en able to see it in the flesh. Thereupon St. Paul puts them right by saying,--using the same argumein that great resurrection chapter, 1 Cor. xv.,--that " if we believe that Jesus Himself died and roseain, even so also those who through Jesus have fallen asleep will God bring with Him," that is, willd bring back to us when He brings back to us Jesus.

u may just observe, by the way, that the whole force of what the Apostle says is very commonly loswrong method of reading these words. We very commonly hear them read, "will God bring withhim.t thus we, as I said, lose the force of the argument, which is:--If Jesus, our first-fruits, our representatd and rose again, so will all who die in union with Jesus rise again. And in order to that, the samewer of God which brings Jesus back to us, will with Him, with Jesus, bring their spirits back, in ordet resurrection.


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ell, what then? "This we say unto you by the word of the Lord"--thus the Apostle introduces, not anument, not a command or saying of his own, but a special revelation--"that we, which are alive and

main unto the coming of the Lord" (for notice that at first, at the early time when these Thessalonianstles were written, first of all St. Paul's letters, the Apostle looked forward to that day of which neithn nor angel knoweth, as about to come on in his own time) shall have no advantage, no priority, ovm which have fallen asleep. And why? For this reason--that "the Lord Himself shall come down froaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Chrisall rise first:" that is, shall rise before anything else happens--any changing, or summoning to the Lous who are alive.

w here let us pause in the sacred text, and consider what it is which we have before us. Mind, we aeaking to-day, as the Apostle is speaking in this passage, entirely of the blessed dead; of those ofom it may be said that through Jesus their death is but a holy sleep. We have clearly this before usertain time, fixed in the counsels of God, the Father, known to no created being,--mysteriouslyknown also, for He Himself assures us of this in words which no ingenuity can explain away, to then Himself in His state of waiting for it,--at that fixed time the Lord, that is, Christ, shall appear in the sble to men in His glorified body; and His coming shall be announced to men by a mighty call, a sig, and by the trumpet of God.

w let me at once say that as to such expressions as this, when we are told that they cannot bear theral meaning, but are only used in condescension to our human ways of speaking, and thus an attem

made to deprive them in fact of all meaning, I do not recognise any such rule of interpretation. If therdsare used to suit our human ways of thinking, I can see no reason why the things signifiedby thords may not also be used to affect our senses, which will be still human, when the great day comeshe sound being heard by all, or as to the Lord being seen by all, I can with safety leave that to Himo made the eye and the ear, and believe that if He says so, He will find the way for it to be so.

w let us follow on with the description. With the Lord Jesus, accompanying Him, though unseen tose below on the earth, will be the myriads of spirits of the blessed dead, And notice,--for it is an

portant point, since Holy Scripture is consistent with itself in another place on this matter,--that at thiming none are with the Lord, no spirits of the departed, I mean, except those of the blessed dead. Iner words, this is not the general coming to judgment, when the whole of the dead shall stand before

d, but it is that first resurrection of which the Evangelist speaks in the Apocalypse, when he says,ap. xx. 5, "The rest of the dead lived not again until(a prescribed time which he mentions, whatevert may mean) the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he h part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests ofd and of Christ."

en, the Lord being still descending from heaven and on the way to this world, the dead in Christ shae first--the first thing: the graves shall be opened, and the bodies of the saints that sleep shall cometh, and, for so the words surely imply, their spirits, which have come with the Lord, shall be united tose bodies, each to his own.

re, again, I can see no difficulty. The same body, even to us now on earth, does not imply that theme particles compose it. And even the expression "the same body" is perhaps a fallacious one. In Sul's great argument on this subject in 1 Cor. xv. he expressly tells us, that it is not that body which wwn in the earth, but a new and glorified one, even as the beautiful plant, which springs from thegnificant or the ill-favoured seed, is not that which was sown, but a body which God has given.atever the bodies shall be, they wil l be recognised as those befitting the spirits which are reunited m, as they also befit the new and glorious state into which they are now entering.

s done, they who are alive and remain on earth, having been, which is not asserted here, but is in r. xv., changed so as to be in the image of the incorruptible, spiritual, heavenly, will be caught up

ether with the risen saints in clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: to meetHim, because He is in His wm heaven to earth, on which He is about to stand in that latter day.


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us, then, the words which I have chosen for my text will have their fulfilment. Christ has been the firts of this great harvest,--already risen, the first-born from the dead, the example and pattern of thatch all His shall be. This was His order, His place in the great procession from death into life; andween Him and His, the space, indefinite to our eyes, is fixed and determined in the counsels of Goe day of His coming hastens onward. While men are speculating and questioning, God's purposemains fixed. He is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness. His dealings w

world are on too large a scale for us to be able to measure them, but in them the golden rule is kepery one in his own order. Christ's part has been fulfilled. He was seen alive in His resurrection bodywas seen taking up that body from earth to heaven. And now we are waiting for the next great eve

coming. Wisely has the Church set apart a season in every year in which this subject may bepermost in our thoughts. For there is nothing we are so apt--nothing, we may say, that our whole raco determined to forget and put out of sight. It is alien from our common ideas, it ill suits our settledions, that the personal appearing of Him in whom we believe should break in upon the natural

quence of things in which we are concerned. And the consequence is, that you will hardly find, eveong believing men, more than one here and there who at all realizes to himself, or has any vivid

pectation of, this personal coming of Christ. Think of the Christian Church as taking its faith and hopm the New Testament; and then compare that faith and hope, as it actually exists with reference to nt, with the New Testament,--and the discrepancy is most remarkable. In the days when it was writhteen hundred years ago, every eye was fixed on, every man's thought was busy about, the cominLord. You will hardly find a chapter in the epistles in which it is not spoken of, or alluded to, with

rnest anticipation and confidence. Whereas now, when it is brought so much nearer to us, it has almnished out of the consideration of the Church altogether. No doubt, something may be said by way son why it should occupy a less prominent place in our thoughts than it did in theirs. The Lord's owrds, and those of the Divinely-commissioned messengers who announced His return, spoke of it

mply as certain, without any note of time being attached. Hence, those who had seen Him departieved that they themselves should behold Him returning. There can be no doubt in any fair-judging

nd that, besides these eye-witnesses, St. Paul, when he wrote that fifth chapter of the Second Episthe Corinthians, had a full persuasion that he himself should be of those on whom the house not mah hands that is to be brought from heaven was to be put, without his being unclothed from the earthernacle. He looked at such unclothing in his own case as possible, but was confident that it would ppen so. And again, when, in the over-zeal of the Thessalonians, they imagined that the coming of rd was actually upon them, and he in his second Epistle checks and sets right that prematuresumption, he does so in words which, as he wrote them, might very well have had all their fulfilmenhin the lifetime of man. Those words now appear to us in more of the true sense in which the Spirito spoke by Paul, intended them: we see that the apostasy there predicted, and the man of sin therewn as to be revealed, are great developments or concentrations of the unbelief of churches andions; but there is no evidence that the men of that day saw any such meaning in the words. As it wadually, and not without conflict of thought, revealed to Peter and his side of the apostolic band, thatntiles were to be fellow-heirs and partakers of the peace of Christ, so it was gradually, and not with

me sickness of hope deferred, made manifest to the Church, that the coming of the Lord should be fes and generations delayed. Unmistakable indications of this truth appear in the Lord's own prophe

courses, which we now know how to interpret.

d all this is no doubt a reason why the great subject should be less constantly and less vividly befor minds, than it was before theirs. But it is no reason why it should have dropped out altogether; nony we should almost universally neglect the revelations of Scripture respecting the manner and detaHis coming, and confuse them altogether in a vague popular idea of the judgment day; none, why would forget the mention of the landmarks which He Himself has pointed out along the wildernessrney of His Church,--and so, as far as in us lies, provide for her being unprepared when He appear

e end of the state of waiting of the blessed dead, the end of our present state of waiting will be, thatHis appearing. Let us fix this well in our minds; and do not let us be kept from doing so by being told

t there is danger in allowing the fancy to exercise itself on the unfulfilled prophecies. No doubt ther


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hapter 3

E have traced the condition of the blessed dead, from their departure and being with Christ, to therious day of the resurrection. Their spirits are safe in His keeping, till that day when He shall call thdies out of the graves, and they shall be once more complete in manhood, body, soul, and spirit. Anr present consideration is, What, on that resurrection, is the next thing which shall befall them? Nowbest, because the most general text on this matter, is that in Heb. ix. 27, "IT IS APPOINTED UNTO

EN ONCE TO DIE, BUT AFTER THIS, THE JUDGMENT."

u will see that here is enounced something common to our nature. We are all to die; we are all to b

ged after death. And that this is really true of all, and not merely stated generally, to be met afterwaspecial exceptions, St. Paul shows, when he, speaking of things belonging entirely to his ownctice, and his own justification before God, says, in 1 Cor. v., "We labour, that whether present in th

dy or absent from the body, we may be accepted with Him. For we must all be made manifest(therehing about standingin the original) before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive

ngs done in his body, according to that which he did, whether it be good or bad." You wil l see that hexpressly includes himself among those who are to be made manifest before the judgment seat ofrist.

w perhaps you are wondering why I am accumulating this Scripture evidence to show a matter whi

ems to all so plain. But I have a sufficient reason. And that reason is, because in other passages ofripture the blessed dead, or rather the believers in Christ, whether living or dead at that day, areoken of as if they were not subjected to the general judgment of all, but passed into the glorious lifehout undergoing that judgment. Thus our Blessed Lord Himself; in John v. 24, says, "Verily, verily, y unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath eternal l ife, and come

into judgment" (for that, and not "condemnation," is the word used by our Lord),--"cometh not intogment, but hath passed out of death into life." That would seem to mean that the faithful man haseady passed over out of death, and all that belongs to death, sin, and guilt, and judgment, into life; arefore when the judgment comes he can have no part in it, cannot come into it at all, because he is

quitted already through the faith in Him who bore his guilt and took away his sin. And similarly, agaw verses further on, ver. 29, our Lord says, "An hour cometh in which all that are in the graves shall

ar the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth: they that have done good unto the resurrection; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment." That is, I suppose, the one shall ro eternal life,--into the full bliss of the heavenly state, and the others into the condition, whatever it bch the judgment shall decide. Of course I am fully aware that I have not quoted these texts as they d in our English Bibles. The matter stands thus: the word which I have rendered "judgment" is therd always meaning judgment--the word occurring in the very next verse where our Lord says, "As Iar, I judge, and Myjudgment is just;" the word used also above in ver. 22, where He says, "The Fatmmitted alljudgment unto the Son." In those two places, because there was no difficulty, ournslators kept the word "judgment." But in these other two which I have quoted, because there was aparent difficulty, they changed "judgment" in one verse into "condemnation," and in the other intoamnation," without any reason or right soever. Indeed, in the latter of the two passages, not only is t

but the whole sense is broken up by their unfaithfulness. Our Lord having mentioned the resurrectudgment, proceeds to vindicate the justice of that judgment: "As I hear, I judge: and My judgment ist, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." So that the difficulty, which mddling with the Bible has tried to remove, does exist in the Bible as it came from God. And we mus

see through it, not to hush it up by being unfaithful to the plain language of our Lord.

r does it exist here only. Our Lord Himself has given us one great description of the final day ofgment, in His own discourses; and another by the pen of His beloved apostle. We will take the lattet, as being, for our present purpose, the fuller of the two: and we will show in what remarkable point

o agree. In Rev. xx. 4, a passage to which we made reference last Sunday, we find the first resurrec

ing place, and the faithful dead rising to reign with Christ during a period known as a thousand yead it is expressly said, "The rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished." Now, I a


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here taking upon me to explain the meaning of this, but merely to insist on the fact that, whatever mthe precise import, it is so stated. Well, and what then? When the thousand years are expired, anden the last great victory of the cause of God over evil has been gained, then we read, "And I saw aat white throne, and Him that sat on it; and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and

oks were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judgof those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the

ad that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judgedery man according to his works." So far the description in the Revelation. Now, in that given us by ord in Matt. xxv. we find the Son of man coming in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, and sitthe throne of His glory, and all the nations gathered before Him. But there is this singular coinciden

h the other account, that when the King comes to address those on the right hand and those on thesays, "Inasmuch as ye did it(or did it not) unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it(or di) unto Me." Now "these My brethren" cannot of course mean the angels; therefore there must be soh Christ to whom the words must refer. In other words, we have here also the risen saints in glory wLord, as in that other account.

t we may go even further yet, and may discover more from Scripture respecting the position andployment of these the saints who are with the Lord. When St. Paul in 1 Cor. vi. is dissuading therinthians from taking their disputes before the heathen courts to be settled, he says, "Know ye not tsaints shall judge the world?" and again, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" Such

pressions as these can bear but one meaning, and that is that the saints of Christ are actually to bea

rt in the judgment, as His assessors. Further than this we now not. It is not our duty to be wise abovt which is written; but it is our duty to be wise up to that which is written: otherwise it was written inn. What, then, are we to say respecting this apparent discrepancy in the statements of Holy Scriptuncerning the dead in Christ? If it be true that it is appointed unto all men once to die, but after that thgment; if it be true that we all, including even the apostles themselves, shall be manifested, laid opore the judgment-seat of Christ, how can it be also true that the believer in Christ has already passm death into life, and therefore cometh not into judgment at all? How can it be true that while othersall rise to a resurrection of judgment, he shall rise to a resurrection of life? How can those descriptiocorrect which we have been quoting, of these living and reigning with Christ long before the genergment, and even taking part in it with Him?

elieve the answer is not difficult, and perhaps may best be found by remembering another variety ofpression in Scripture respecting a kindred matter; I mean the way in which the saints of God areoken of in relation to death itself. On the one hand we know that it is appointed unto all men to die; at the faith and service of the Lord bring with them no exemption from the common lot of all mankindt only is this proved every day before our eyes, but Scripture gives us its most direct testimony thatse who believe in Christ must expect it. The very expressions, "the dead in Christ," "those whoough Jesus have fallen asleep," show that this is so. Yet again, on the other hand, some passagesuld almost look as if death itself for the Christian man did not exist. Christ is said to have abolishedath; we learn from His own lips that "if a man keep His word he shall never taste of death;" He has sain, "He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." Now in this case there is no practical difficu

the variety of expression is very instructive. We all know what lies beneath it; namely, the fact, thatugh the believer in Christ must undergo the physical suffering of death like other men, yet death hacome to him so altogether without terror and curse, that it has been for him deprived of real existencd power. The apostle in Rom. viii. gives the full explanation: "the body indeed is dead because of sthe spirit is life because of righteousness."

ell, now let us apply this to the case before us. Let us take the same solution, and see whether it wilfice. The Christian shall, like other men, undergo the judgment after death; thus one set of Scriptureclarations shall be fulfilled. But to the believer, who has died in the Lord, what is the judgment? Hends before the judgment-seat perfect in the righteousness of Him to whom he is united, and fromom death has not separated him. His sentence of acquittal has been long ago pronounced; he com

into judgment, so that it should have any substantial effect in changing or determining his conditio


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e resurrection is for him not a resurrection of judgment, not one in which the judgment is the leadingture and characteristic, but it is only and purely a resurrection of, and unto life: one in which life is thding feature and idea.

us for the blessed dead, the judgment has no dark side: "there is no condemnation to them that arerist Jesus." But though it has no dark side, it has a bright one. Never for a moment do the Christianriptures lose sight of the Christian reward. Those who die in the Lord, like the rest of men, shall be len before the tribunal of Christ. Their sins have been purged away in His atoning blood; they haveen washed and justified and sanctified in the name of Jesus and by the spirit of their God.

t to what end? for what purpose? Was it merely that they might be saved? No indeed, but that Godght be glorified in them by the fruits of their faith and love.

d these fruits shall then be made known. The Father who saw them in secret shall then reward themenly. The acts done and the sacrifices made for the name of Christ shall then meet with gloriousribution; yea, even to the least and most insignificant of them,--even according to our Lord's ownrds,--to the cup of cold water given to one of His little ones.

s much the fashion, I know, in our days, to put aside and to depreciate this doctrine of the Christianward. It looks to some people like a sort of reliance on our own works and attainments; and so, thouy may in the abstract profess a belief in it because it is in Scripture, they shrink from applying it in th

n cases or in those of others. Now, nothing can justify such a course. We have no right to discard ative held up for our adoption and guidance in Scripture. And that this is so held up, who that knowsle can for a moment doubt? Think of that saying of our Lord about the cup of cold water just quoted

nk of the series of sayings of which it is the end--"He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of hteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward," etc. Think, again, of that series of commands, our alms, our prayers, our abstinences, in secret, each ending with--"and thy Father which seeth in

cret shall reward thee openly." Think, again, of the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, where tat final blessing at the hand of the Lord is throughout represented to us as reward, or rather--for so rd used properly means--wages for work done. And it is in vain in this case to try to escape from thegency of our Lord's sayings by alleging that the doctrines of the Cross were not manifested till after ath and glorification. For if this were so, then the apostles themselves had never learned those

ctrines. For the apostles constantly and persistently set before us the aiming at the Christian rewardir own motive, and as that which ought to be ours. Hear St. Paul saying that, if he preached the gosmatter of duty only, it was the stewardship committed to him; but if freely and without pay, a rewardges, would be due to him. Hear him again, in expectation of his departure, glorying in the certainty reward: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth ther

d up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day: to me only, but to all them also that love His appearing." Listen to St. John, whom we are accustomegard as the most lofty and heavenly of all the apostles in his thoughts and motives. What does he

his well-beloved Gaius? "Look to yourselves, that we lose not the things which we have wrought, bt we receive the full reward." Listen, again, to the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that apostolic

n, eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures, and hear him describing the very qualities and attributes oh, that he who cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligenek Him, and saying of one of the first and brightest examples of faith, that he had respect unto theompence of reward.

then, these holy dead who have died in the Lord will in that judgment have each his reward allottem according to his service and according to his measure. Then the good that has been done in secr

all come to light. All mere profession, all that has been artificial and put on, will drop off as though d never been; and the real kernel of the character, the fair dealing and charity and love of the innerul, will be made manifest before men and angels. Then, not even the least work done for God and fod will be forgotten.

w such an estimate of all holy men will be or can be made and published, utterly surpasses our


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sent powers to imagine. We have no faculties now whereby to deal thus truly and fairly with all mer organs of sense in this present state, and the minds themselves to which those organs conveypressions, are too feeble and limited for the effort required to apprehend all respecting all, as we shn apprehend it. But this need not form any difficulty in our way to believe that such a thing shall be.e power to understand it and the power to receive it surely do not dwell farther off from our maturedwers now, than the full powers of a grownup man from the faculties and conceptions of a child. In ach matters, we are children now. Think we then of the blessed dead at that day of the resurrection, ang sure of bliss and of their perfection in Him to whom they were united; being as though there werjudgment, seeing that they have One who shall answer for them at the tribunal: judgedwithstanding before the bar of God, and passing not to condemnation, but to their exceeding great

rnal reward.

e more thing only now is left us: to ask what we know of that last and perfected state of man--thathest development and dignity of our race, when body, soul, and spirit, freed from sin and sorrow, shgn with Christ in light.

h that question, and its answer, we hope to conclude this course of sermons next Sunday.


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hapter 4

E are to speak to-day of the final state of bliss of those who have died in the Lord. Their state of waits ended; the resurrection has clothed them again with the body, the final judgment has passed ovem, and their last unending state has begun. There are no words in Holy Scripture so well calculatee a general summary of that state as those concluding ones of a passage from which I have beforegely quoted: 1 Thess. iv. 17: "AND SO SHALL WE EVER BE WITH THE LORD."

r these words contain in them all that has been revealed of that glorious state, included in one simpscription. The bliss of the moment after death consisted in being with Christ: the bliss of unlimited a

n only be measured by the same. Nearness to Him that made us, union with Him who redeemed useverlasting and unvexed company of Him who sanctifieth us: what glory, what dignity, what

ppiness can be imagined for man greater than this?

d yet it is not by dwelling upon this, and this alone, that we shall be able to arrive at even thatpreciation of heaven which is within our present powers. We may take these words, "for ever with thrd," and we may find in them, as in our Father's house itself, many mansions. In various ways we arfrom the Lord here; in various ways we shall be near Him and with Him there.

t first of all we must approach these various mansions through their portals and the avenues whichd up to them. And one of those is the consideration, who, and of what sort, they shall be, of whom w about to speak. It will be very necessary that we should conceive of them aright.

ell, then, they will be men, with bodies, souls, and spirits like ourselves. The disembodied state will er, and every one will have been reunited to the body which he or she had before death. What do wow of this body? Very glorious thoughts rise up in our minds when we think of it: but in this course omons I am not speculating; I am inquiring soberly what is revealed to us about the blessed dead. Wn, again, what do we know of this body of the resurrection? In Phil. iii. 21, there is a revelation on thnt. It is there said that "our home is in heaven, from whence also we expect the Saviour, the Lord

sus Christ: who shall change the body of our degradation that it may be fashioned like unto the bodglory." And this change is very much dwelt on as a necessary condition of the heavenly state in 1

r. xv. "Flesh and blood," we are told, i.e., this present natural or psychical body, the body whoseorming tenant is the animal soul, cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither can corruption, that whicays and passes away, inherit incorruption, that state where there is no decay nor passing away. Sn, a change must take place at the resurrection: a change which shall pass also on those who are

ve and remain at the Lord's coming. The bodies of the risen saints, and of those who are to join themng for ever with the Lord, wil l be spiritual bodies: bodies tenanted and informed in chief by that highrt of man, which during this present life is so much dwarfed down and crushed by the usurpations oanimal soul; viz., his spirit.

w, it would be idle to conceal the fact, that we cannot form any distinct conception what this spirituady may be. No such thing has ever come within the range of our experience. But some particulars w

know about it, because God has revealed them. And of those, the principal are specified in this verssage: "It is sown in corruption: it is raised in incorruption." It cannot decay. Eternal ages will pass oand it will remain the same. Again, "it is sown in dishonour: it is raised in glory." There will be noame about it, as there will be no sin. Thus much from these words is undoubted. What else they maply we cannot say for certain; probably, unimagined degrees of beauty and radiancy, for so the worry as applied to anything material seems to imply. Further: "it is sown in weakness: it is raised inwer." That is, I suppose, with all its faculties wonderfully intensified, and possibly with fresh facultiented, which here it never possessed, and the mind of man could not even imagine. This last also

ems to be implied by its being called a spiritual body. As here it was an animal body, subject to there animal life or soul, hemmed in by the conditions of that animal life, so there it will be under theminion of, and suited to the wants of, man's spirit, the lofty and heavenly part of him.


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d if we want to know what this implies, our best guide will be to contemplate the risen body of our Lwe have it presented to us in the gospel narrative. As He is, so are we in this world in our essenceen now--and as He is so shall we be entirely there. He is the first-fruits, we follow after as the harveat, then, was His resurrection body? While it was a real body and admitted of being touched and

en, and had the organs of voice and of hearing, yet it was not subjected to the usual conditions oftter as to its locomotion, or its obstruction by intervening objects. It retained the marks of what hadppened before death. In order to convince the disciples of His identity, our Lord ate and drank beform. We must therefore infer that these were natural acts of His resurrection body, and not merely

sumed at pleasure.

h a body, then, of this kind will the blessed be clothed upon at the resurrection, and remain investeever in glory. Now let us see what further flows from this as an inference. We may further say, that wve implied in it a surrounding of external circumstances fitted to such a state of incorruptibility andry. Man redeemed and glorified will not be a mere spirit in the vast realms of space, but a gloriousdy moving in a glorious world. Nor is this mere inference, however plain and legitimate. Holy Scriptull of it. The power of words does not suffice to describe the beauties and glories of that renewed aailing world. I need not quote passage after passage--they are familiar to you all. Nor, again, is iture alone which shall be glorious above all our conception here. It would appear that art also shallve advanced forward, and shall minister to the splendour of that better world. The prophets in the Ostament, and the beloved Apostle in the New, vie with one another in describing the heavenly city, w Jerusalem, adorned as a bride for her husband, lighted by the glory of the indwelling Godhead.

herethis glorious abode of Christ and His redeemed shall be, we have not been told by revelation; were idle to indulge in speculations of our own. From some expressions in Scripture, it would seem probable that it may be this earth itself after purification and renewal: from other passages, it wouldpear as if that inference were hardly safe, and that other of the bodies in space are destined for theh dignity of being the home of the sons of God.

e have now, I believe, cleared the way for the answer to a question which presses upon us to-day: a at least, as that answer can be given on this side of death. Of mankind in glory, thus perfected, wh

all be the employ? For I need hardly press it on you that it is impossible to conceive of man in a higd happy estate, without an employment worthy of that estate, and in fact constituting its dignity and

ppiness.

w, some light is thrown on this inquiry by Holy Scripture, but it must be confessed that it is very scas true that all our meditations on and descriptions of heaven want balance, and are, so to speak,tures ill composed. We first build up our glorified human nature by such hints as are furnished us inripture; we place it in an abode worthy of it: and then, after all, we give it an unending existence withing to do. It was not ill said by a great preacher, that most people's idea of heaven was to sit on aud and sing psalms. And others, again, strive to fill this out with the bliss of recognising and holdingercourse with those from whom we have been severed on earth. And beyond all doubt suchognition and intercourse shall be, and shall constitute one of the most blessed accessories of the

avenly employment; but it can no more be that employment itself than similar intercourse on earth wemployment of life itself here. To read some descriptions of heaven, one would imagine that it wery an endless prolongation of some social meeting; walking and talking in some blessed country wise whom we love. It is clear that we have not thus provided the renewed energies and enlargedwers of perfected man with food for eternity. Nor, if we look in another direction, that of the absencekness and care and sorrow, shall we find any more satisfactory answer to our question. Nay, ratherall we find it made more difficult and beset with more complication. For let us think how much ofployment for our present energies is occasioned by, and finds its very field of action in, the anxietied vicissitudes of life. They are, so to speak, the winds which fill the sail and carry us onward. By theion, hope and enthusiasm are excited. But suppose a state where they are not, and life would becoead calm; the sail would flap idly, and the spirit would cease to look onward at all. So that, unless w

n supply something over and above the mere absence of anxiety and pain, we have not attained to


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y, we are farther than ever from--a sufficient employment for the life eternal. Now, before we seek foanother direction, let us think for a moment in this way. Are we likely to know much of it? We haveore in these sermons adopted St. Paul's comparison by analogy, and have likened ourselves heredren, and that blessed state to our full development as men. Now ask yourselves, what does the cts play know of the employments of the man? Such portions of them as are merely external andterial he may take in, and represent in his sport: but the work and anxiety of the student at his bookd the man of business at his desk, these are of necessity entirely hidden from the child. And so it isward through the advancing stages of life. Of each of them it may be said, "We know not with what wst serve the Lord, until we come hither."

that we need not be utterly disappointed, if our picture of heaven be at present ill composed: if it sebe little else than a gorgeous mist after all. We cannot fill in the members of the landscape at presecould, we should be in heaven.

membering this our necessary incapacity for the inquiry, let us try to carry it as far as we may. And tmay not be forsaking the guidance of Holy Scripture for mere speculation, let us take the words of

ul--"Now we see in a mirror, obscurely, but then face to face: now I know in part, but then I shall knoen as also I was known(by God.)" This immense accession of light and knowledge must of course erpreted partly of keener and brighter faculties wherewith the blessed shall be endowed; but shall ito point to glorious employment of those renewed and augmented powers? How could one endoweh them ever remain idle? What a restless, ardent, many-handed thing is genius even here below?

w the highly endowed spirit searches about and tries its wings, now hither now thither, in the vastlms of intellectual life! And if it be so here, with the body weighing on us, with the clogs of worldly

siness and trivial interruption, what will it be there, where everything wil l be fashioned and arrangeds express purpose, that every highest employment may find its noblest expansion without let ordrance? Besides, think for a moment of the relative positions of men with regard to any even the leount of this light and knowledge of which we are speaking. In order to take in this the better, think olowest and most ignorant of mankind who shall attain to that state of glory. Measure the differenceween such a spirit and an Augustine, and then recollect that Augustine himself, that St. Paul himses but a child in comparison of the maturity of knowledge and insight which all shall there acquire. Shought may serve to show us what a gap must be bridged over, before any such perfect knowledgeattained by any of the sons of men. And when we remember that all blessings come by labour andodly heat of exercised energy, shall we deny to the highest of all states the choicest of all blessingsthat the attainment of, and advance in, the light and knowledge peculiar to that glorious land must

agined as affording unending employment for the blessed hereafter. And this gives us another insigo the matter. As there is so great disparity among men here, so we may well believe will there be thScripture goes to show that there wil l be no general equalizing, no flat level of mankind. Degrees aks as they now are, indeed, there will be none. Not the possession of wealth, not the accident of bich are held here to put difference between man and man, wil l make any distinction there: butquality and distinction will proceed on other grounds; the amount of service done for God, the degrentrance into the obedience and knowledge of Him, these will put the difference between one andother there.

t we hasten to a close: and in doing so, we come back to the simple words of our text, "for ever withrd;" and we would leave on your minds the impression that these, after all, furnish the best key to thployment of the blessed in heaven. If they are fit companions for the Lord, then must they be like HiHe is there; and thus we seem to have marked out an employment alone sufficient for eternity. Loo

n its various aspects.

at is, what will be, the Lord doing in that state of blessedness? Will He be idle like the gods ofcurus, sitting serene above all, and separate from all, created things? No, indeed, no such glorified

rd is revealed to us in Holy Scripture. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." The created univers be then as much beholden to His upholding hand as it is now. If they are to be for ever with Him,

ending and girding His steps, they, too, will doubtless be fellow-workers with Him there, as they we


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re. And in this, only consider how much of His creation was altogether hidden from them here! Lookroad on a starry night--behold a field of employment for those who shall be ever with the Lord. Theater part of His works never came within sight of this our mortal eye at all. These are only hints, it is

e, which we have no power of following out: but they may serve for finger-posts to point to wholelms of possible blessed employment.

en, again, there is more in the words "for ever with the Lord" than even this. Who can tell what pastrks, not of creation only, but of grace also, the blessed may have to search into--works wrought onmselves and others which may then be brought back to them by memory entirely restored, and thet studied with any power to comprehend or to be thankful for them?

en, again, the glory of God Himself, then first revealed to them,--the redeeming love of Christ,--the ghe mystery of the indwell ing of the Spirit,--dry and lofty subjects to the sons of men here, will be tom when there as household words and as daily pursuits. It seems to me, my brethren, when we loothese sources of blessed employment, though we are unable from our present weakness to followm out into detail,--and when we think that perhaps after all in our earthly blindness we may be omit

me which shall there constitute the chief, it seems to me, I say, as if we should have to complain noufficient employ for the ages of eternity, but of an infinite and inexhaustible variety, for which evendless ages of limited being hardly seem to suffice.

ch, then, beloved, are the thoughts which have occurred to us on a subject of which I pray that it ma

one of personal interest to every one here present.

en we are to leave this present state, is a matter hidden from our eyes, and not dependent onrselves: but how we will leave it, whether as the Lord's blessed ones, or with no part in Him, this is lourselves to determine. There is set before us life and death. May we choose life, that it may be weh us; that we may wake from the bed of death and find ourselves with the Lord; that we may pass inful hope through the waiting and disembodied state, and wake at the morning of the resurrection tot fulness of completed bliss of which we have this day been speaking.

henry alford - the state of the blessed dead

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